3rd House Journal

Memorial Day Weekend

[Flags on Boston Common; 5/30/10]

It's Memorial Day Weekend here in the U.S., with Monday a federal holiday in honor of those who died while in military service. For most of us, it's a 3-day weekend and the official start of the summer season. Not having anyone close to me in the military, I tend to forget the purpose of the holiday beyond a nice long weekend. So we were surprised when we were strolling the Boston Common a couple of years ago and came across this sea of flags, one for each soldier from Massachusetts lost in conflicts since World War I. We saw them last year as well, and I understand that they're up again for this year, sadly with 159 more flags added for those who've died while serving since 2001.

Meanwhile, we're generally sticking close to home, with a drive up the seacoast at some point but otherwise enjoying the relative quiet of the city on what is a get-away weekend for many. The weather looks to be mostly or partly sunny and reasonably warm with occasional chances of showers. I'll actually have to do a bit of work at some point to meet a deadline, but mostly I'll get to relax. Wishing everyone here a lovely long weekend!

A Cold, Wet Night at Fenway

[At 100-year-old Fenway Park, Boston; 5/1/12]

I uploaded the photo above, taken with my phone, from Fenway Park last night. It was a chilly, wet night -- barely above 40°F. And the Red Sox were already losing 1-0 when we arrived 10 minutes after the first pitch. But we had fun for few innings trying to stay warm (the hot chocolate, by the way, was anything but hot) and cheering on the hapless Sox until we gave up I think in the 6th inning and went home. At least the Celtics won their playoff game last night, keeping Boston sports fans distracted from the Red Sox' woeful young season for a bit longer.

Here are a handful of photos from the game.

No Rest

[Newbury St, Boston; 4/29/12]

I'm feeling a bit buffeted again after getting hit with a "should have been done yesterday" deadline in a client meeting. Again too much work in too little time. While my client is a very easy-going nice guy, his internal client turned out to be another stressed-out manager working long hours ("call me with any questions - I'll be working very late every night" - um, you're assuming I will be?). Apparently everyone who has a job is overworked in direct proportion to the number of people in the economy who are unemployed. I suppose, for me, the difference between my current freelance situation and the job I just burned out in is that I'm not permanently, perpetually stuck. Part of the problem right now is that have another client to satisfy as well, a smaller project but one I'm still trying to get my arms around, one with weekly deadlines. Another part is that I haven't really recovered yet from burnout.

[Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge; 4/28/12]

Meanwhile, spring continues its march forward, even somewhat burned out around the edges with drought. The dogwoods are glorious, even with somewhat pitted blossoms on close inspection. The lilacs scent the air like department-store perfume spritzers, and the lily-of-the-valley ring their silent bells. Tulip beds in the Public Garden bloom and fade in waves of color, perhaps with some surrepticious watering by landscapers in the wee hours of the morning.

[Public Garden, Boston; 4/29/12]

Today is a rare day of chilly rain, of course perfectly timed to coincide with our Red Sox tickets for this evening. But now, to work...

A Pastoral Wedding

[St James Church, Groton MA; 4/21/12]

On Saturday afternoon, we went to the wedding of D's cousin's son in Groton, a bucolic little town about a 90-minute drive from Boston. They couldn't have picked a better day -- always chancey weatherwise in April, but this day was sunny and warm, sentiments that seemed to infect everyone, or maybe reflected from them. The church was a pretty little cobblestone chapel with beautiful arched windows that streamed the late sun and cooling breezes.

The reception was also in Groton, at the Barn at Gibbet Hill (apparently named for a hill in England, not for any local gruesomeness). Again, the mild weather allowed the guests to mingle on the large back porch while the bride and groom posed for photo ops with the farm's Angus cattle. (Bit of gruesomeness there as they did serve some Angus beef among the fare.) Then dinner was served, toasts made, and dancing commenced. I hardly knew anyone, save a couple of D's cousins, but it wasn't about us but rather the young couple and their friends and family. It was really quite lovely.

[Gibbet Hill Farm, Groton MA]

[Porch off the Barn at Gibbet Hill]

 I posted a small set of photos here.

Marathon

[Finish line, evening before the Boston Marathon; 4/15/12]

It was a fun, if perhaps a bit too busy, weekend. Up to the New Hampshire seacoast on Saturday afternoon to hang out with a bunch of old friends, then to Boston on Sunday afternoon to stay with D and enjoy the big Marathon Weekend in the city.

Monday's marathon was one of the hottest on record, with temperatures as high as 88°F under blazing sun. We walked down to watch the elite runners come in a couple of blocks from the finish line and even standing there for 20 minutes or so wilted me. After walking around to get a few different vantage points further back on the course, I had to go back inside and cool off and rest - after just standing up! We went back out later on, when runners were finishing after almost 5 hours of running in extreme heat, and I saw a lot more runners walking the final stretch of the race than I've seen before. Reportedly about 4300 registered runners opted out of the race, and about 2000 who did race needed some kind of medical support along the way. Runners also had ample support from the good citizens who stood out in the heat along the route offering water, ice, wet paper towels, and cool pops (be sure to read Lorianne's moving report from the race route).

[Gatorade tent after the finish line]

With a sudden influx of too much freelance work, I have my own sort of marathon to get through over the coming weeks. I expected I'd have more free time to get back to my blog, others' blogs, reading, writing, photographing, walking, etc., but it's a fast and crowded start at the beginning of this race, so I'd better get to it before I find myself falling behind. Hopefully I'll be able to get into a more comfortable rhythm further down the line.

[Exhausted runner, after the finish]

[Pooped spectator]

Starting Lines

[Tulips, Newbury St in Boston; 4/8/12]

There, that's cheerier than the ghastly ghoul I left hanging in my last post. The colors in these tulips perfectly matched some of the anime characters wandering around Back Bay last weekend with the Anime Boston convention in town. You can see a few pics of them here.

Spring is indeed off to a start in the Boston area, although it's been chilly since the March "Spring Break Week in Florida" that veered north and fooled the magnolias and a few others into jumping the gun and blossoming too early, leaving dead brown blooms behind. They were lovely for the couple of days they lasted.

[Magnolias on Comm Ave, Boston; 3/24/12]

Speaking of strange weather, I've been watching tiny hail come down for the last several minutes. Storms are rolling through today, but only showers are predicted - not nearly enough to slake the drought and quell the brush fires that keep breaking out. Still, more showers are due over the next several days, which can only help. It's also supposed to get warmer and should be a lovely weekend.

Alas, it will be a busy weekend. A friend with a beach house is having a "girl hang" that I'm going to Saturday until Sunday. Then I'm driving back to Boston on Sunday to be in town for the big weekend -- the Boston Marathon is on Monday and the city is overrun, so to speak, with marathoners and their supporters. It's such a fun time and, since D lives so close to the finish line, it's been a blast to be able to go cheer on the exhausted runners as they come down Boylston Street. The only fly in the ointment is the conference call my soon-to-be (unless disaster strikes) new clients scheduled for Monday morning just before the first runners come in. sigh. I shouldn't really be balking, given what a fortunate break this contract is! They have promised to get me off the call in 30 minutes, so hopefully we can sprint out the door and still see the winners come in. D will have to be posted to the tv to identify who's in the lead and if it's a close race.

[A Sunday morning in Back Bay; 4/1/12]

Meanwhile, I am getting my home office set up and clearing out old stuff so I should be ready to get back to business once project work starts. Space in my apartment is opening up as light increasingly fills the day.

Spout

[Rain spout, Belmont MA; 4/4/12]

A potential long-term project surfaced yesterday, releasing a torrent of details to think about and decisions to make: hourly rate I choose vs willing to accept depending on contract length or project size, whether to accept W2 work or 1099, whether the potential project will come through or simply vanish, whether to accept freelance work from former employer, whether to use my own name or my old freelance company name or rename it and do I have to re-register it and what about bank accounts, whether to learn new software and buy new software for a project, whether it's worthwhile long-term, whether I want to spend my days working in said software program or stick to what I'm good at and find someone else to do that part, whether working under my old business name even for a short time precludes getting unemployment compensation from my last employment, what to do about business cards, whether my back (neck, elbows...) will hold up and if not how will I survive, and where's that pilates book I bought years ago and never used, and on and on.

But it's almost the weekend. I'll be going into the city tonight and away from all the things left undone. Sunday is Easter, resonant with new beginnings. Nothing is permanent, even wrong decisions and costly mistakes. The magnolias flowered too early and turned brown when the freeze came, but the trees will drop the ruined blossoms like a burnt batch of cookies and move on to the next task of sprouting their greenery. Unstoppable, spring continues to blossom all around.

[Pear tree, Back Bay, Boston; 4/1/12]

Transitional

[Pear blossoms and brownstones, Back Bay, Boston; 4/1/12]

I'm still at that stage where I've been cut loose from the dock I was tied to all too long but I'm still trying to regain my sea legs. Of course I'm still in safe harbor. I signed up for unemployment compensation yesterday, and my two-weeks severance pay will come later this week. I spent the last week contacting former freelance clients and following up on other leads, with another call scheduled today and one on Monday. As D says, I have several hooks in the water, so now wait and see what bites. I have more lines to cast, too, but I thought I should take a little breather while I can, gather strength and ready the ship -- or at any rate clean the house.

[Nature Center at Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, Belmont MA; 4/3/12]

I have such a backlog of things I want to do, things I've given short shrift because of the demands of my job. Besides much needed house cleaning (not just the surface stuff, but tackling piles and boxes of stuff that needs to be sorted and gotten rid of), there's writing, walking, exploring, seeing friends, seeing art, reading, and thinking -- none of which should be rushed or done half-heartedly in a state of exhaustion. I haven't come down to that level yet.

We were busy over the weekend. We walked over to the South End for dinner at a friend's place on Saturday night, which was fun but I wished I was feeling more relaxed and less tired. On Sunday, we met up with Lorianne and J at the JFK Library to see our friend Teju Cole accept the PEN/Hemingway Award for his acclaimed first novel, Open City. (See Lorianne's blog post.) It was a lovely event, with readings by Teju and Yannick Murphy, winner of the PEN/Winship New England award for her novel, The Call, as well as a keynote address by novelist Andre Dubus III. But loveliest of all, as Lorianne says, was the chance to catch up with old friends and bask in the joy of a well-deserved honor for one of them.

[Teju Cole at the PEN/Hemingway Awards event; 4/1/12]

---

It occurs to me that I haven't had a vacation in a long time. An occasional long weekend, yes, but not a good long break from work. That might have helped my ability to cope at work! Stupid not to have taken more, I guess, but hard to get the time off. Vacation is not encouraged here in the US. So I'll try to take some now. Starting today, after my noontime business call. It's shaping up to be a sunny, warm day. Time to open the windows.

Just Before Spring

[On Newbury St in Boston; 3/11/12]

Although the vernal equinox is still a week away, the "spring forward" time change seems to mark the beginning of the season, even as the Memorial Day holiday weekend marks "summer" before the solstice. At least here in Boston. In the other half of the world, of course, it's another story. This past Saturday, a couple of friends came into town and we met at the Mapparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Library. (Although photography isn't allowed, here's one I found on Flickr.) It's a magnificent place, and the tours are all too short as I could stay inside the giant stained glass globe perusing the old maps for hours (the maps date back to 1935). We tested out the whispering gallery effect -- you can stand at either end of the bridge through the globe's center and hear someone as if they're standing next to you. Voices from the other side of the planet.

Alas, that one stolen hour overnight from Saturday to Sunday is getting its revenge early this week, with Monday morning coming all too soon and Tuesday as well. Off to work...

Cagey

[Racing clouds over Boston; 3/4/12]

Extreme winds buffet these days. Last Friday brought two heartening interactions on the career front, followed by an uncalled-for harangue in the afternoon in my present job that left me rattled and riled and woke me in the night, not for the first time. Then yesterday I found out that a colleague who brings great creativity and spark to the job, who frequently works into the night and on weekends albeit is a chronic late arriver in the morning, was confronted with records of her late arrivals pulled from our office key-card entries. Who knew? And since they are now consolidating office space, my group will soon be moved such that we'll be right under management's noses. Last night I dreamed I was being fitted with a body-shaped iron cage where I sat, and I woke gasping for air.

[Birds roosting in their favorite shrub on Newbury St in Boston]

Yesterday morning I contacted a former client from my freelance days asking if I could use him as a reference for my interview that was scheduled for today (they've since postponed it to next week) and he sent me a lovely note back that it was a pleasure to hear from me and of course I could. It's good because he's in a senior level position at his company, a marketing target of the people I'll be interviewing with. Meanwhile, I sent a note to the woman I interviewed with a couple of weeks ago, at the job I'd really love to get, expressing my continued interest in the position. She wrote back late yesterday saying they're still interviewing candidates, but it was a nice note and at least I've heard something. Then when I got home I had a phone conversation with a recruiter who pretty much denigrated my experience and skills. So there you go.

I try to keep breathing.